Military Accounting Research Articles

Aid, Politics and the War of Narratives in the US-Pakistan Relations - A Case Study of Kerry Lugar Berman Act

The author employs the decolonial perspectives to examine the politics and narratives surrounding the US Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009, also called the Kerry Lugar Berman (KLB) Act.1 The act authorised the payment of $1.5 billion per year in non-military assistance to the government of Pakistan for the next five years, from 2010 to 2014, with a provision to extend funding for an additional five years on meeting specific benchmarks. The act was severely criticised and generated a debate in Pakistan. One of the significant differences from past practices was the inclusion of conditions aimed at increasing the Pakistani military's accountability and limiting funding use.

Civilian supremacy in democracies with ‘fault lines’: The role of the parliamentary standing committee on defence in Bangladesh

This article sets out to identify the conditions that promote civilian supremacy over the military in the post-military democracies. The article addresses the case of Bangladesh, where a decade-old post-military democratic political process is riddled with problems, such as the absence of opposition parties in the parliament, chronic political instability and violence and inefficient governance. However, the powerful military has not yet shown any inclination towards intervention in domestic politics. Rather, various civilian institutions, such as the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence (PSCD), have been successful in raising the level of the military's accountability to the civilian government and society. The article seeks to explain the role of PSCD during 1998–2001 in promoting civilian supremacy in Bangladesh. It argues that three sets of factors can explain the PSCD's role. First, there is intense competition for political power between the two major parties, which resists the military's involvement in politics in favour of any one political party. Second, there is the important role of civil society in favour of civilian supremacy. Third, there are external factors such as the donor countries' and international agencies' stance in favour of democracy and the Bangladesh military's participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions, which are discouraging military intervention in politics at home.